St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-07-30
INDIAN KINGS.
Potentates Who Rule Under the Surveil-
lance of the English.
c.. NJ. s,


lance of the English.
The Maharaiah of Gwallor is Individually
the most dangerous of these sovereign allies,
writes correspondent of the San Francisco
Chronicle, describing the Indian princes.
He is a man of military instincts and has an
army, it is said that could, in an emergency,
show a roster of 100000 men. After the
Franco-Prussian war his royal highness
reorganized his army upon the German
system, completely discarding that OF
the French, which had before been his
model, and so far did he carry his con-
tempt, that he deprived some half-breed
French officers Of the positions they
held in his service on the ground that ma
ton which met with such terrible defeat in
so short space of time could not produce
good soldiers. With the exception of Oval
was not Maharajah er Nawab IN India
whose life is not given up to dissoluteness
and debauchery, who does not Cypress his
people and exact from them the utmost
farthing in order to crafty his taste for sem
sual pleasure The late Mnharajah of Jey-
pore was, like every other Indian ruler,
terrible despot. But his despotism had a
vein of grim humor and originality. He al
ways selected thieves for high office, whom
when he retired, hecast into prison. and made
them disgorge to him their plumber, white
all his grateful subjects would cry, Just is
the Maharajah Of JeyporeW The early
life of a native king is !, not per
foster the noble qualities that may be inner
ent in mans character. The zenana is a
hotbed Of intrigue. It is the part of the pal
ace which is set aside for women, and, as
there are few hundred of these royal wives,
each of them perhaps with one or more sons,
and each of them desperately anxious for his
welfare, there is no doubt that the heir ap-
parent runs more risk of being strangled or
accidentally sat upon when cooling in his
cradle than children of meaner origin. When
he grows into manhood his father, whose
regular course of imm Qualities makes him
debilitated creature when other men of his
age are just entering into the enjoyment OF
life, is jealous of him and often as not tries to
get rid of his eldest born by murder, and as
often as not succeeds, for there is hardly
throne occupied by the original heir APP
parent. It has been my good fortune to
have seen several of these gentlemen, both
in the splendor of durbar and in private. In
public they are imposing Their gorgeous
dress, their diamonds and their precious
stones heaped in the most negligent profu-
sion upon their persons, make them most
striking and impressive figures. Diamonds
stud their sword hits; they wear dia-
mond waist bands, diamond aigrettes,
diamond necklaces, diamond-sprinkled1
shoes Indeed, an Indian king in his full
regalia is the king of the childish imagi-
nation. But divest an Indian king of his
ornamentation and seek him in the privacy
of his own apartments and you will find
meagre man with little white cloth about
his loins, literally smeared with grease, and
obsequiously waited upon by women whose
beautiful but scantily draped figures are for
grace of motion unequaled in the world.
Singular as it may appear that women whose
whole life is but an immoral slavery should
exercise so powerful an influence over these
men, it is from the harem that emanates
most of the mischief done in India Squat
ted upon pile of luxurious carpets, with his
long hukah tube in his mouth, much be-
jeweled and diamond crusted, with women
playing with his hair or tickling his royal
feet, serving him with sweet sherbets and
singing to him lascivious songs, accompanied
with the dance, surrounded with gossip and
fattery, this scion Of former powerful rulers
passes the MONDAY heats in the under
ground apartments.